Slime comes in a variety of delightful textures, though it can sometimes be hard to find the right words to describe them. How do you distinguish between different kinds of “thick?” Here are a few attributes that we use to describe different kinds of slime and how you usually achieve the different effects to help out with finding your perfect slime mixture.
We’ll mostly be talking about thick slimes here, as thinner ones can usually be described succinctly as “watery.”
Goopy
A goopy gunge is created from using a large amount of HEC, usually Natrosol. Illustrated in the photo below, this type of slime tends to create “droplets” as it flows over someone. Depending on the thickness and what the person is wearing, these droplets can continue to form and drip off of the body for a long time. At very high concentrations of HEC, this type of slime tends to create “folds” as it gets poured, pooling on top of a location before eventually overflowing on top of itself. This effect is created by just using a lot of HEC, depending on your HEC quality this could be anywhere from 170 – 200g per 10L without including any additives (such as K-Lube).
Stringy
A stringy gunge is usually created by combining HEC with a little bit of K-Lube. These types of slime are capable of creating a “sheeting” effect where the strands of goo combine to create a temporary sheet. These sheets eventually get pulled apart in to thin strands. This type of slime is also sometimes referred to as “snotty.” Stringy slimes tend to stick more closely to whatever they contact and don’t splatter as much as other types of slime. At very high concentrations of K-Lube, the stringy slime can start to feel “rope-y,” as you can start to feel the goo orient itself along a particular axis. Chemically, the reason this happens is due to the active ingredient in K-Lube, Polyethyleneoxide, which forms very long polymer chains.*
* Note: Indigo is not a chemist, this is what happens at a very high level
Hopefully some of these descriptions help identify different kinds of slime so that you can make your favorite texture, and hopefully end up just like this slimy dragon.
